Blog

  • Investor class has discovered the huge returns in energy efficiency

    The San Jose Mercury News has written a glowing story about energy efficiency (I know, it’s all the rage) and its move from the backwater of the clean energy movement to the forefront. What makes the Merc’s story interesting is something not emphasized often enough by people who pitch energy efficiency to businesses, homeowners and policy makers.

  • Don’t look now, but Idaho Power is moving into the EE big-leagues

    Idaho Power for the longest time wasn’t the first utility to come to mind when discussing the most progressive utility-driven energy efficiency practitioners. That appears to be changing.

  • EE survey of business leaders encouraging

    BizTimes.com reports that Johnson Controls has surveyed 1,400 executives from a variety of industries and found that six in 10 have begun energy efficiency training for facilities managers and their employees. The survey found slightly more executives believe green (i.e. energy efficient) buildings help attract and retain workers.

  • Obama calls insulation ’sexy.’ Really.

    One of our constant rants about the challenge of convincing people of the wisdom of energy efficiency is that it’s not “sexy” like, say, wind turbines or PV panels. Well, the president says it is. So there.

  • Energy Northwest’s Nuke Agenda Bewildering

    The news that Energy Northwest, the Washington consortium of 25 publicly owned utilities, wants to build new nukes in the state is just remarkable. Bewildering, actually. You may recall this outfit by its old name, the Washington Public Power Supply System, WPPSS. Twenty five years ago, after its effort to build five plants led to the biggest muni bond default in history, the agency was widely derided as WHOOPS!. Now it has a new name.

  • Efficiency’s Pot of Gold

    The McKinsey & Co. study on energy efficiency savings potential is stunning–in a good way–for a couple of reasons, only one of which has to do with the content of the report.

  • LEED program moves to fix energy gap

    The New York Times is reporting on an issue well-known to many in the energy efficiency business: LEED certification by itself does not an energy-efficient building make. In fact, of 121 buildings studied by the LEED-sponsoring U.S. Green Building Council last year, 53 percent of them failed to meet the requirements for the commercial building [...]